If you are a beginner Linux user looking for a simple, friendly distribution, you might want to look at Linux Mint.

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and shares the same repositories. The default version ships with the Gnome desktop, although the KDE, Xfce and Fluxbox desktop managers are also available. Like Ubuntu, Linux Mint offers a highly versatile and friendly environment, with Aptitude interface and Synaptic package manager.

In this article, I'll demonstrate the classic GUI installation, but also a few things more, including guided text installation of an application from an archive, troubleshooting compilation and installation problems, troubleshooting post-installation problems, editing system configuration files, adding new startup programs, tweaking the resolution and mouse settings, all these while using both the GUI and the command line to achieve the desired results, and some basic insight into wireless adapter configuration. It should not be boring.

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